Letters : . . .

From
Douglas Kell, University of Wales

Aberystwyth

Terence Kealey’s singular views in “You’ve all got it wrong” contained so
many errors, half-truths, non sequiturs and distortions as to lead one to
wonder
whether it was intended merely as a gadfly. But such views are so
dangerous that
a few rebuttals are needed.

To the results of a survey showing that some 10 per cent of new processes
“could not have been developed without substantial delay in the absence of
recent [my italics] academic research”, Kealey states that therefore “some
90 per cent of new technology arises from the development of pre-existing
technology—not from academic science”. That …